Tuesday, March 14, 2017

This past week the Kernersville Chamber of Commerce hosted it's monthly Lunch with Leaders event featuring Curtis Swisher, Town Manager of Kernersville and Dudley Watts, Forsyth County Manager. Quite a bit of interesting and exciting information was exchanged starting with Curtis and some of the work the Board of Aldermen have been undertaking as it relates to land and building acquisition.

Future buildings that the town is currently building will update and/or replace buildings and facilities built in the 1960s. The town is in the process of finishing out the new Public Services building which houses the transportation department along with engineering and other Kernersville public services. The cost of this project is 5.7 million.

The town recently acquired the old School Tools building on the corner of Mountain and Main and is in the process of asbestos abatement before being torn completely down and re-visioned into a park. You may have noticed the old Amoco station on the corner of Cherry and Mountain also recently gone. This will free up the land for potential additional parking for downtown and the Kernersville Museum which is adjacent to the site.

The land beside of Korner's Folly was also acquired by the town in conjunction with the Folly. This was the lot where high-end townhouses had been approved approximately 10 years ago. Once this project fell apart, the land remained on the market. Upon further investigation, the town and the Folly felt that this was an opportunity to expand the Folly both in parking and potentially in facility, should the money allow.

Firestation #42 that is currently on Industrial Park will be moved into a NEW facility on the land across the street from OutWest Steakhouse. This land was formerly occupied by a modular home company that has been gone for a number of years. The cost of this project will be 6.2 million and will continue to improve upon response times and insurance ratings.

Both Curtis and Dudley spoke about the new Kernersville Library which should be completed by 2018. The current library, which is in a town-owned building is a part of the 2010 Library Bond and will be newly constructed off of Harmon and Broad, behind the Bank of NC.
Anyone with interest in following the bond dispersion can go to www.forsyth.cc/bondtracker